1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to laundry hampers, and more specifically, the present invention relates to a container for individually storing laundry in a revolveable laundry hamper having a plurality of chambers into which garments and items requiring laundering can be separated according to the type of wash cycle required or for other reasons requiring separation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
One of the more tedious household chores is the sorting and separating laundry prior to washing. Typically, all of the clothing to be laundered is stored together in a conventional clothes hamper and sorted immediately prior to washing. Thus, in present conventional hampers, the clothing items must all be manually removed, transferred and likely stored in a laundry basket or placed on the floor to sort. This greatly increases the time and effort required to wash the laundry. Clearly, there is a need for a means to sort and store laundry as it becomes soiled.
Prior art laundry hampers consist of some form of container conveniently located so that discarded clothing, etc. can be collected therein. Having only a single container requires the sorting of clothes prior to doing the laundry, this is time consuming and inconvenient and, when clothes are unpleasantly soiled, adds to the “chore” of doing laundry.
Holders for flexible laundry bags which are configured as a rigid box frame are known. Some such hampers have been designed to resemble furniture on their exterior surface, e.g., Des. 441,928 to Adams. When it is desirable to separate several items of soiled clothing according to their size, color, fabric, moisture content, etc., partitions either internally or externally of the hamper have been used. U.S. Pat. No. 5,833,336 to Dean discloses a clothes hamper apparatus having removable interior partitions and removable mesh clothing bags. Each partition has vertical edge members which are shaped to engage slots in a track system located on the hamper's walls or on another partition which it engages. Hook and loop fastener elements are located on mesh bags inserted into the hamper's interior and the walls of the partitions and the hamper to releasably retain the bag and their clothing contents in place within the hamper.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,958,715 to Capelli discloses a clothes hamper having a hollow foraminous interior partition extending lengthwise of the hamper to form a pair of compartments.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,057,309 to Fragale discloses a clothes hamper having a central horizontal partition-shelf defining an upper, open-topped compartment and a lower, open-fronted compartment, a plurality of upper, open topped, free-standing sub-containers removably mounted on the partition shelf, and a plurality of lower, open-topped, free-standing sub-containers mounted below the hamper below the partition for movement into and out of the hamper through a front wall opening.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,062,416 to Smillie discloses a hamper comprising two lower compartments for storing bulkier items and two inner compartments arranged to pivot within the container from a position wherein the inner compartment(s) are within the container to an outward position wherein the inner compartments are outward of the container. The inner compartments are arranged to accept one or more rigid inserts.